


Christmas is The Time of Love

by TheWiseOne12



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-10-04 11:01:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17303411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWiseOne12/pseuds/TheWiseOne12
Summary: Carey and Shea and the mistletoe. The long way there.





	Christmas is The Time of Love

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the CHat Christmas video with Carey and Shea and the idea of them kissing under the mistletoe

Carey had known that management was thinking about naming a captain but since he couldn’t be it he didn’t really listen to the conversations about it. As training camp wound down he had much better things to think about that something stupid like that, especially after the way the last season went.

It was still a surprise to hear that they had named Shea captain. Carey hadn’t seen him much at all since he was still recovering from surgery so he hadn’t been around the arena as much. Carey hadn’t been at the arena when the press conference had been held so he didn’t get around to watching the press conference until the next morning.

He was watching it while still curled up in bed the next morning. There was no point listening to the shit that Bergevin and Coach so he skipped through all those parts to listen to what Shea had to say. He seemed a little nervous, unsurprisingly, but it didn’t take long to get him to smile and relax.

Carey didn’t want to think about the way that smile made him feel so he put his phone down before getting up to start his day. With opening night really close now and wanting to start the season off better, there were things that he should be doing.

By the time Carey made it to the rink most of the team was already there and surprisingly Shea was there.

“Congrats, man,” Carey told him, clapping a hand on his back.

“Thanks, it’s an honour,” Shea smiled.

Carey smiled as well before settling in his stall to start dressing for practice. As he strapped his pads on he happened to glance at Gally and he looked a little down. There had been thought that Gally would get the captaincy and if it had once again gone to a players vote he probably would have got it. Now wasn’t the time to say anything so he shelved the thought for later before heading out onto the ice.

About halfway through practice Carey noticed that Shea was leaning against the boards at the bench. Since Carey wasn’t needed in the net at the moment he skated slowly to the bench to talk to the new captain.

“I see that you are taking your new captain duties very seriously,” Carey teased.

“Unlike you and your duties in the net.”

Carey glared at him before we turned our attention to the players on the ice taking shots on Niemi.

“We should have lunch sometime to catch up,” he suggested.

Carey nodded before Coach called him back to the net to keep practicing. The next time that he glanced back towards the bench Shea had disappeared, probably called away to do some publicity thing.

Coach kept practice short with opening night tomorrow so it wasn’t long until people started filtering back into the locker room. Not wanting to hang around on the ice any longer than he had to Carey moved towards the locker room as well.

After stripping his pads off Carey moved from his own stall to an empty one next to Gally.

“You are coming for lunch with me,” Carey told him.

“What if I had plans?” Gally asked.

“Too bad.”

He agreed so they met outside the locker room after having both showered and changed. Since Carey was the one that had invited him out for lunch he offered to drive. They weren’t going that far anyway so it wasn’t long until they pulled up in front of a sandwich shop.

Neither of them talked until after they had ordered and got settled at one of the tables in the corner.

“What do you think of the rookies?” Carey asked him.

Gally smiled and let himself get swept up into talking about the new players on the team.

“What do you think of our new captain?” he then asked.

That definitely dimmed his smile slightly but he shrugged.

“You know that you would be an amazing captain,” Carey told him.

“Yeah, it’s just they decided that I wasn’t worth the risk,” he frowned.

“I can guarantee that you will get a chance to captain a team before you retire.”

“But what if it isn’t this team. You and I are the only ones left from when I was a rookie.”

Carey paused to think for a second as he ran through players in his head before realising that Gally was right. Everyone else that had been on the team had either left, retired or been traded.

“I still keep looking in the locker room for Patches and Chucky but they aren’t there,” Carey admitted.

Gally scowled at that thought.

“Have you talked to him much?” Carey then asked.

“A little but he’s had to deal with getting a lot of shit organised and being injured.”

“Yeah, it’s weird not seeing the two of you together.”

“Is this what it is like when PK was traded?” Gally asked.

“Yeah, after it got announced we talked for hours about what this meant and it was really strange for ages in the locker room but we still talk a bit so it doesn’t have to be the end of the world,” Carey reassured him.

“I know but we were meant to be the team that won it all and no one else is here.”

Carey didn’t know what to say to help Gally because it was the same thoughts that he had thought before and never had anything to counter them.

“What do you think our chances are against the Leafs tomorrow?” he then asked, blatantly changing the subject.

They then spent the rest of lunch talking about hockey instead so that by the time they had finished Gally looked a little more like himself.

“Do you want me to give you a lift home?” Carey asked.

“It’s fine, I’ll see you later,” Gally smiled before heading off in a different direction.

Carey then spent the rest of day wasting time and packing to head to Toronto for the game tomorrow. The group chat was going off about random things but Carey ignored all of them in favourite of doing anything else.

 

*******

 

The game against Toronto didn’t end in a win but that didn’t stop the locker room from being loud.

“Come on Pricey, we got a point, cheer up,” Shawzy cheered.

Carey offered a slight smile which was enough to get him to go and bother someone else. He slowly changed out of his pads and agreed to go out with the team.

“Come on, guys, even Pricey is joining us,” Gally told the locker room.

That seemed to make the locker room even louder so Carey stood up and took a couple of mock bows to cheers. It took a bit of time to get everyone else organised to get out of the rink and to the bar but that was normal.

Carey didn’t know who suggested the bar that they ended up at but it wasn’t far from the hotel and similar to the many he had been to across the country. He made sure to get a beer before settling deep into the booth so he was less likely to be dragged out to dance. Compared to the players around him he felt ancient which made him miss Shea as he could trust that they would end up sitting next to each other and could talk while slowly sipping a beer without any pressure.

Of course that wasn’t the only reason that he wants Shea around but he didn’t allow himself to focus on that reason, instead turning to listen to what Gally and Jordie had to say about the game.

They weren’t talking for long when Gally noticed some of the younger players attempting to dance and it was hilarious to see how bad it they were.

“Go get it, Leks,” Gally muttered absently.

Carey turned around to see what he was talking about and saw the young player being dragged out of the bar with an attractive blonde woman.

“Good to see someone is going to have a fun night,” Carey said darkly.

“You could find someone. I’m sure there is someone here that would like the look of that face,” Gally chirped.

Carey just rolled his eyes and Jordie laughed at his expense.

“Come on, we never see you pick up anyone. I don’t even think that I’ve seen you date anyone,” he continued.

“Yeah, surely there is someone you like the look of,” Jordie continued.

Carey rolled his eyes again. Gally kept chirping him for a few minutes before he got distracted by something else. By the time he swallowed the last bit of his beer he was ready to leave.

“Anyone want to come back to the hotel with me?” he asked the table.

Everyone shook their heads so he squeezed out before slipping out of the bar. The cold, night air was a relief after the cramped atmosphere of the bar but he was glad the walk wasn’t long as otherwise he might have frozen a couple of fingers otherwise.

The hotel lobby was abandoned and so was the team floor which Carey was glad for as it meant that he could get straight to bed. He was extremely glad when he didn’t have a roommate anymore because it meant that he could do whatever without having to worry about anyone else.

After preparing himself for bed he was settled into bed when he pulled his phone out. There were a couple of texts from family members and then he paused when noticing that there was one from Shea.

All it said was good game which he responded with a thanks but it didn’t stop the butterflies in his stomach.

Carey wasn’t stupid and he knew himself well. He realised he was gay when he was 16 and Shea wasn’t the first teammate he had had a crush on and he wouldn’t be the last. He just had to keep it under wraps and he would be fine.

 

*******

 

A win in Pittsburgh was good but being shut out in their home opener was disappointing. Carey then pushed himself a bit harder at practice to try and be better. This meant that by the time he came off the ice he was exhausted and ready to go and collapse for a while.

He was one of the later ones into the locker room which meant that he was one of the last ones out and he was slightly surprised to see Shea standing outside.

“Shit, I didn’t see you there,” Carey cursed.

“Sorry, I just finished up here so I was wondering if you wanted to go for lunch?” he asked.

Carey agreed and since they were going to the same place Shea offered to drive them. He then wouldn’t tell Carey where they were going but once they got a bit closer Carey recognised that they were going to a small Italian place.

“I feel like I haven’t seen much of you,” Shea smiled after they ordered.

“It’s what to you get for being injured,” Carey teased.

“So, it’s all my fault then?”

“Of course. It’s good to see you though.”

“What’s the team like?” he asked, completely changing the topic.

“It’s good but they all make me feel old,” Carey complained.

“Haha, yeah, you’re an old man now.”

“Still not as old as you. I need you to come back so that old man captain is back.”

Shea blushed slightly but it was a little hard to tell with his thick beard.

“After not being the captain for a bit it’s a bit strange to have it again,” he admitted.

“It’s not something that I relate to but I can see why,” Carey shrugged.

“I don’t think that it is a question but I want you to still be part of the leadership group still.”

“Really?”

“Of course. Pricey, you are clearly a great leader and the only thing stopping it from being official is your position.”

He couldn’t help the slight blush that colour his cheeks and he ducked his head.

“Thanks,” Carey said.

Our food arrived so that stopped conversation for a bit as the pair ate. It was somewhere Carey had been many times so the food was exactly what he was expecting and it was really good. Once conversation started again they moved to talking about what they had done over the summer.

Carey hadn’t done anything exciting with his time away from Montreal. It was mostly training, seeing family and doing some community work. Shea had done very similar things with his own time and by the time Shea dropped him back at the rink Carey was in a great mood.

“It’ll be good to see you a bit more if you are going to be at the rink more,” Carey told him.

Shea nodded and added that they should have lunch more often which Carey definitely wasn’t going to be saying no to.

“See you later then.”

 

********

 

October wasn’t a bad month for the team. Carey didn’t have amazing stats but he had done enough for now. By the beginning of November Shea was around the rink a lot more as he was aiming to be back playing by the end of the month.

Carey was in the middle of running a whole bunch of errands that he had been putting off for weeks. It was all the boring adult ones that he really didn’t want to do but it had got to the point that he had to.

He started with the grocery store, mostly needing things that would last past their upcoming road trip to New York. He had only made up one aisle before almost walking straight into Shea.

“Shit, fuck, I didn’t see you there,” Carey cursed.

“Hey Pricey, it’s good to see you,” he smiled.

“Yeah, sorry, can I just grab the cereal from behind you?”

“Do you want some company?” he asked.

“Are you sure? This isn’t the only place that I have to go to today and you must have things that you have to get.”

“Honestly, I’m just glad to out of the house. I’m still a little antsy from not being able to do anything after my surgery,” Shea shrugged.

Carey wasn’t complaining about the company, especially Shea’s, so he agreed. It was a much better with someone else to talk to as he shopped.

“What do you need?” Shea asked.

Carey showed him his list. “Literally everything that lasts”

“Been putting off grocery shopping, I guess,” he teased.

“Yep, my Mom wouldn’t be impressed.”

“You should’ve seen my Mom when she first came up here and saw how empty my house was. She was not impressed at all.”

“I got the same thing. I’ve been here long enough now that my Mom likes my place and doesn’t have any more complaints.”

Despite the number of things that Carey needed, the shop didn’t seem that long, probably because it was easy talking to Shea so the time seemed to pass faster. It didn’t talk long to get outside and stack the bags into his car.

“I’ve got to go to the hardware store as well, if you want to come, I can drop you home afterwards,” he suggested.

He was still slightly surprised when Shea agreed but Carey knew the feeling of being cooped up with an injury so he knew the feeling of wanting to get out and do anything.

The hardware store wasn’t that busy so the two of us were able to walk up and down the aisles without seeing anyone else.

“What do you need?” Shea asked.

“Lightbulbs, some paint and more nails.”

“So, how many goaltenders does it take to change a lightbulb?” he teased.

“Hahaha, you are hilarious,” Carey told him sarcastically.

Most of the things that he wanted were really easy to find but when he got to picking a paint colour it was a bit harder. He was looking for something to repaint his guest rooms but that meant finally deciding on a colour.

“What colour is it now?” Shea asked.

“It’s this really disgusting pale yellow that I’ve been meaning to repaint for ages.”

“And are you going to paint it yourself?”

“Yeah, I might as well.”

“How about bright pink?” Shea suggested.

“Oh, for sure. Then everyone will want to stay in those rooms,” Carey laughed.

“Awesome, is that all you need then?” he teased, grabbing a pot of the colour.

Carey didn’t bother giving him a response, instead rolling his eyes and waiting for the defenceman to put the pot back.  They ended up picking on off-white colour after arguing about colours for a while.

“Anything else you need?” Shea asked.

Carey shook his head so they headed home. Shea was nice company and he was glad that they had ran into each other at the grocery store. The one thing was that it wasn’t helping his crush on Shea though.

 

*******

After a run of away games, including a swing through Western Canada, Carey was exhausted and glad for the day off when someone knocked on the door. He wasn’t expecting someone to visit and was very surprised to see Shea on his door step.

“I was thinking that we should paint your guest rooms,” he suggested.

Carey had only been complaining about now having done it yesterday so he knew that it hadn’t been done.

“Sure”

The pair had to move a bit of furniture and cover the rest and the carpet with drop clothes before getting the paint and brushes out.

It didn’t take long for them to be slightly splattered with paint but it didn’t take long to get the first room painted. Shea had music playing so it felt far shorter than it actually was. The other rooms were much of the same until after they had finished.

Carey was just scraping the last of the paint of his brush when he was done and accidentally sprayed Shea’s shirt.

“Pricey, how could you?” Shea protested.

“Sorry”

He had turned around for a minute so he didn’t see Shea dip his roller back into paint so that when Carey turned around he got a big strip of paint right down his chest.

“Fuck, Shea.”

From there it only took a couple of seconds to start out a full out paint war with the leftover paint. It didn’t take long for Carey to get paint all in his hair, on his face and all down his body. Shea had just as much paint on his.

Unfortunately Shea had a height advantage over Carey so he managed to get his arms around the smaller goaltender and stopped him from fight back.

Carey couldn’t help the way that his heart started racing with Shea pressed up against him. He would love to just turn around kiss the other man but he knew that that wouldn’t go well. Carey then felt one of Shea’s arms move from around him and wasn’t sure what was happening until he felt paint running down his face.

He turned around just as Shea dropped the now empty can of paint on the ground. It was very clear that he had just poured the can over Carey and he had to rub his eyes to get paint out.

“I think that I might have to go have a shower,” Carey admitted.

“Yeah, the paint is a good look for you, though,” Shea teased.

Carey rolled my eyes and they moved the furniture before thinking of having a shower.

“Thanks for the help. This was fun,” Carey said.

“You’re welcome. It was nice to spend time with you,” Shea told him.

Carey didn’t let himself thing about that for long before leading Shea towards the bathroom.

“Do you have something that I can change into?” he asked.

“Probably, it might be a little too small though.”

He found an old Habs shirt that was on the bigger side for him and a pair of sweatpants that would probably also fit him before heading off to his own bathroom to shower.

It took him a very long time to get all the paint out of his hair and throughout the whole shower he was desperately trying not to think about what it had been like being so close to Shea. This was really not helping his crush.

By the time he made it back to the lounge Shea was already there and Carey hadn’t thought about how it would make him feel to see his name plastered across Shea’s back. It was just another thing that he shouldn’t focus on, instead moving to sit next to him on the couch.

The TV was turned to a replay of a Leafs game but it was clear that Shea didn’t have a real interest in it.

“The doctors think that I should be able to play against Carolina,” he said.

“Really, that’ll be awesome,” Carey exclaimed.

“Yeah, I’m so excited. It’ll be good to be out on the ice in a game again.”

General hockey talk covered most of the rest of the conversation until Shea mentioned that he should leave.

“You could stay for dinner if you want?” Carey offered.

“It’s fine, I should probably get home.”

He headed out not long after that leaving Carey alone in the house with too much to think about and it was not helping him at all.

 

*******

 

They couldn’t pull out a win in Shea’s first game which annoyed Carey a bit but he couldn’t dwell on it. They had three days off before the next game so Carey wasn’t surprised to have some stuff to do at the rink for the media team.

It was one of those things that he wasn’t really a fan of but could put up with as long as it was short.

He got ushered into the room for the CHat room for a Christmas piece with Shea. The producer gave us a couple of instructions but trusted us enough to not be inappropriate and make it take forever.

“Ready to start then?” she asked.

The camera’s started and she gave us the nod to start.

“Hi, this is Shea Weber, I’m here with Carey Price, and we’re here for a special edition of the holiday CHat,” Shea started.

Carey was the first one to grab a question so he read it out. “Would you invite me to your family’s Christmas dinner?”

“Yes, I think that’s normal.”

“I think we’re having it at my house, too, this year,” Carey added.

“Oh, perfect, I can’t wait.”

That started Carey thinking about what it would be like to have Shea at his family’s Christmas dinner and it was not something that it should be thinking about in the middle of a media piece for the team.

“Which of us is naughty, and which of us is nice?” Shea asked, reading a second question.

“You’re naughty and I’m nice,” Carey teased.

“Oh, I don’t believe that.”

“What should my New Year’s resolution be?”

Shea paused for a minute, unsure exactly what to say.

“Grow a beard?” Carey suggested.

“Yeah, I think you need a beard, full season. That’s a good one, actually,” Shea smiled.

“Maybe, for the winter.”

“Which of us would win in a snowball fight?” Shea asked.

“We both have guns,” Carey laughed.

“We’d both have black eyes.”

“I’d call it a draw.”

“Yeah. I feel like you’d probably put a rock in yours or something.”

Carey wasn’t going to lie, it was something he had done before. “Freeze them first.”

“Yeah”

“Which of us would be move popular under the mistletoe?” Carey asked.

“Hey, that’s not even fair. You know it’s you,” Shea groaned.

Carey smiled and try not to blush at the thought, “I’ll take that one.”

“Yeah, that’s too easy.”

“I’ll take that compliment.”

“Especially here,” Shea added which made them both laugh again.

“What’s the best gift I’ve ever given you?” Shea asked.

“The gift of friendship,” Carey said after a moment of consideration.

“That’s… I knew that was coming.”

Both of them were laughing and since that was the last question the producer stopped the cameras and smiled at us.

“That was the easiest one of these I’ve done. One and we are done. You guys are done,” She smiled.

Carey wasn’t complaining about that so they headed out of the room.

“That wasn’t too bad,” Shea said.

“Nah, it was fun,” Carey laughed.

Shea nodded and we ended up heading in separate directions.

Carey didn’t want to think about the things that Shea had said and about how he would like to kiss Shea under the mistletoe because that was not good for his sanity.

 

*******

 

Since the team was going to be on a road trip right before the Christmas Break we were having our Christmas Party a bit earlier. Carey was unsure why he agreed for it to be at his house because he was now seriously regretting it.

He wasn’t a bad cook and didn’t mind cooking but this was quite a bit of work. He got the meat in the oven early but there was still quite a lot to be done. He was in the middle of skewering chicken when the doorbell rang. With uncooked chicken on his hand he wasn’t able to go to open it.

“It’s open,” he called.

He heard the door open and close as someone padded down the hallway. He glanced up when they came in and was surprised to see Shea coming in.

“I thought you might want some help,” he suggested.

Carey nodded because another set of hands would to be really helpful.

“Can you chop those vegetables so they can be roasted?” he asked.

Shea agreed and started chopping after connecting his phone to my speaker, stopping my own music and started playing Christmas songs.

“I didn’t think that this would be your taste of music,” Carey teased.

“You have to embrace the Christmas spirit,” Shea told him seriously.

Carey just laughed and continued with what he was doing. At least he could trust Shea in the kitchen, unlike some of the younger players, and didn’t have to worry about watching him.

It was extremely domestic how they moved around each other. Every time that Shea finished one task he would ask Carey what was next so it didn’t take long to get a lot of it done.

“What should I do next?’ Shea asked, snapping Carey out of his thoughts.

“Um, can you start putting things on the table?” he asked.

He nodded and started moving everything off the bench. The meat and vegetables were still cooking but everything else was done just as the first of our teammates started to arrive.

“Nice decorations,” Gally said as he came in.

“Thanks”

“You are missing some mistletoe though,” he laughed.

“That’s because I’m not a horny teenager looking for a kiss,” Carey retorted.

Gally rolled his eyes but headed inside with a smile on his face. Soon the house was full with Carey’s teammates, their partners and children.

Carey was glad once all the food was on the table and people started eating. He ended up sitting down one end with Petry’s daughter, Jo and Max which meant that there wasn’t a very serious conversation, instead talking about Christmas plans.

Since their last game before the break was in Vegas and there was four days before their next game Carey was going to fly up to Vancouver before catching another flight home to spend the break with his family.

The small child in the conversation was telling the three guys about what she wanted for Christmas and each item was more crazy than the previous one. I could see that Jeff was half-listening and Carey could see that he was trying not to laugh.

Carey always wanted kids. He loved them and wanted to be the ones listening to the ridiculous things that they have to say.

He couldn’t help himself from thinking about how it would be nice to live with Shea and watch him chase their children around.

Fuck, he shouldn’t be thinking about that. It’s not like it could ever happen.

He tuned back into the conversation around him just as Max suggested getting dessert. As everyone got up to get food people moved to different seats which meant that he ended up sitting next to Shea.

“The food was really good,” he told Carey.

“Thanks. I couldn’t have done it without you,” Carey said honestly.

Shea smiled before listening to what Jordie was talking about. Jordie was heading back to Vancouver as well so they were going to be on the same flight back home and probably the same one back to Montreal.

By the time Carey had finished what was on his plate he was stuff and couldn’t eat anything else.

“Do you want help cleaning up?” Shea asked, once everyone was done.

“Yeah, because we know that our teammates won’t help,” Carey laughed.

Shea smiled and Carey started grabbing plates off the table. It took them quite a few trips in and out of the kitchen to get everything off the table. The last time he bumped into Shea in the doorway.

“And you have to kiss,” Gally called.

“What?” Carey asked.

“Look up above you,” he laughed.

The pair in the doorway looked up to see mistletoe that Gally had obviously put up.

Shea ducked slightly before pressing a soft kiss to Carey’s cheek.

“No, come on, you have to kiss properly,” Max complained.

Shea and Carey glanced at each other but neither moved.

“Kiss, kiss, kiss,” their teammates started cheering.

Carey rolled his eyes but knew that they wouldn’t shut up until they did kiss. Shea turned back towards Carey before pressing a kiss to his lips.

Honestly, it wasn’t the best kiss he had ever had but he wanted to lean back in and kiss him again but he knew that he couldn’t do that. He glanced up at Shea to see that he was expressionless and only then did Carey realise that their teammates were cheering.

“We should keep tidying,” Shea said quietly.

Carey nodded before moving back into the kitchen. It was clear that Shea didn’t want to talk about but it wasn’t like he could ignore him.

 

*******

 

So, maybe Shea could ignore him. By the time of their game in was Vegas Carey had barely spoken a word to the defenceman and could never find him anywhere. At this point in time there was nothing that he could do about it since he was flying out straight as soon as the game ended which was in five minutes.

After a late goal and another one in overtime they managed to pull out a win. Carey knew that he was lucky that there was a flight this late direct to Vancouver but it meant that he had to rush out of the arena with Jordie.

It meant that he didn’t get a chance to talk to Shea before heading out which meant that he would probably spend the whole break worrying about that. It also meant that he really didn’t want to talk to Jordie throughout the flight but the defenceman was fine with that.

By the time he made it home he was exhausted and not in the greatest mood. No one was up since it was the early hours of the morning so he dumped his bags and crawled straight into bed.

He was woken hours later by his sister sitting down on his stomach.

“Fuck, Kayla, I was sleeping,” Carey complained.

“And now you aren’t so you can come and have breakfast with us,” she smirked.

Carey groaned before pulling himself out of bed after Kayla got off him and followed her downstairs.

“Morning Carey, it’s good to see you,” Mom smiled.

Carey wasn’t really awake enough yet so he nodded and sat down on one of the stools at the bench. She was in the middle of ladling pancakes into the pan so he was able to put his head down on the bench and listen to what Kayla was talking about.

“How come you are home?” Carey asked her, once she stopped talking.

“I haven’t been back for a while and I knew you were going to be home and my husband doesn’t have time to come up so he is still home,” she explained.

Carey nodded and since Dad had come in and the food was ready the four of them moved to the table for breakfast.

“How are you going?” Dad asked Carey.

That got them talking about the team and their chances at the playoffs.

“It’s good that Shea is back too,” Mom added.

“Yeah, he’s a really good player,” Carey said vaguely.

He didn’t really want to talk about it much more so he asked his Mom about what she had been doing. She was more than excited to talk about it, as she had been doing quite a bit of work in the community and it sounded like she was doing a lot of good work.

“On that note, I should head in and get some things sorted before Christmas,” she added.

“And I should go to work as well,” Dad added.

“And you can come for a run with me, Kayla,” Carey smiled.

“Why?”

“Because you woke me”

She grumbled a bit more but once their parents had gone. They both changed into running clothes and headed out down their usual running route.

Carey made an effort to push them to a bit of a faster pace than usual which meant that Kayla didn’t get a chance to talk to him. She wasn’t stupid and he was pretty sure that she knew that he had something on his mind.

It was really nice to be back to running the familiar track at home. It was covered by trees which made it a wonderful place to run when it was warmer.

“Carey, come on, slow down,” Kayla complained.

“What not in shape?” he teased, but did slow down a bit.

“What’s got you in a bad mood?” she asked, after regaining her breath.

Carey just shrugged and continued running. He knew that he wasn’t going to be able to get away with ignoring her once they got back to the house so he was making the most of not having to.

She pressed him a couple more time before realising that he wasn’t going to respond to him.

“I’m going to get this out of you when we get back,” she promised.

Carey nodded and it was only a bit more back to the house.

“I’m going to shower and change then we are going to talk about this,” Kayla told him.

Carey nodded before heading off to shower himself. The time in the bathroom gave him some time to think about what he was going to tell Kayla. She knew about his sexuality so that wasn’t something he needed to talk about at least.

By the time he made it back into the kitchen Kayla was already there and waiting for me.

“So, what crawled up your ass and died?” she asked.

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Carey said haughtily.

“Is it to do with Shea?”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s totally your type and I know that you spent a lot of time with him but you have barely mentioned him.”

“I don’t know what to say to that but I’m going to start by asking how you know my type?”

“Because I’m not stupid,” she smirked.

“I still don’t know what to say to that.”

“Whatever, so what’s up with you and Shea then?”

“I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“Sure you don’t. I watched that video you two did and both of you are staring at the each other with serious heart eyes,” she teased.

“What? Both of us?” Carey asked, extremely confused.

“Yeah, he is seriously staring at you.”

“Really?”

“So, what happened between you?” Kayla asked again.

Carey then explained what had happened at the Christmas party and she was silent the whole time.

“And then he hasn’t talked to me since,” he concluded.

“Oh, Carey, that really suck,” she sighed.

“I know and I haven’t managed to get him alone to talk about it,” he complained.

“I don’t know what to tell you other than try and corner him but on another note I was totally right about your crush on him.”

“Sure, I’m sure you did. But it’s not like he will want to date me anyway.”

“Come on Carey, anyone would be lucky to date you,” she protested, moving to sit beside him and hug him.

“Thanks.”

“Yeah, Shea is crazy not to want to date you.”

Carey just offered a sad smile and Kayla could tell that he didn’t want to able to anymore so she completely changed the subject to some stupid shit she had seen her ex-classmates from high school had on Facebook.

They didn’t do much for the rest of the day, instead taking the opportunity to catch up and find out what the other had been doing. When Mom came back they headed into the kitchen to start dinner.

“Don’t forget that you can talk to me whenever you want,” Kayla added quietly.

“Thanks”

 

*******

 

The Christmas break was really nice but then they started on a road trip before PK and the Preds rolled into town a few days into January. At this point Carey was really not in a good mood since Shea was still ignoring him. They had barely been in the same room except when needed and it was wearing on him.

Honestly Carey shouldn’t have been surprised to come back from morning skate to find PK sitting on his couch.

“Shit, man, fuck, what are you doing here?” Carey cursed.

“Wow, what a way to welcome your best friend in the world,” PK laughed.

The other man then stood up and wrapped the goaltender in tight hug.

“It’s so good to see you again. Even if we are going to kick your asses tomorrow.”

Carey laughed before trailing after him into the kitchen.

“So, what do you have for lunch?”

“There is leftover chicken and vegetables that I was going to fry,” Carey said.

As he cooked he got a chance to catch up with PK. They talked a lot still but it was very different only see him a couple of times a year since they only play each other twice a year.

”So, how is it going with Shea?” he asked, out of the blue.

“What are you talking about?” Carey asked.

“You are dating him, right?” he asked.

“No, why would you think that?”

“Because I’m not stupid. Are you seriously not dating him?”

“No”

“Huh, I was sure that you were secretly dating him and just didn’t want to tell my yet.”

Carey just stared at him, really wanting this conversation to end. He didn’t think that this would be a conversation he would ever want to have with anyone but with the way his relationship was with Shea at the moment he really didn’t want to talk about it.

PK stopped for a second and just stared at him.

“There is something wrong between you. What is it?” he asked.

“Has it ever occurred to you that I don’t want to talk about it?” Carey asked, before spilling the story.

“Oh, Carey, that man is it love with you and doesn’t know what to do about it,” PK cooed.

“What?”

“Yeah, come on, have you never noticed how he looks at you.”

“Really?”

“Yes, so go and talk to him.”

Carey shrugged before asking PK about what he had been up to as it was a much better conversation and PK could talk for hours if he wanted to.

Carey let PK stay for his nap before heading to the rink together.

“Don’t forget to talk to him,” PK said when they split up at the rink.

Carey nodded before heading into the locker room. It was really nice to see PK again but it was even better when the Habs won 2-0 and Carey got a good couple of saves on the other defenceman.

 

*******

 

Carey didn’t go to practice the next day, since it was optional and he needed a day off. During the season it was nice to just have a day to relax on the couch and do nothing.

He was surprised to hear the doorbell ring and was even more surprised to see that it was Shea standing on the other side.

“Can we talk?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Are you going to ignore me?” Carey snapped.

Shea blinked in surprised before offering a wry smile.

“I guess I deserved that. I’m sorry and if you give me a chance I’ll try and explain myself.”

Carey nodded before leading him inside. They sat down in the lounge and for a minute neither of them said anything.

“I want to start with saying how sorry I am for ignoring you. It’s just that felt a bit embarrassed after the party,” he started.

“And you think that I wasn’t?” Carey asked.

“It’s different for me though.”

“Why?”

He paused for a minute, trying to figure out what he was going to say and Carey could tell that he didn’t want to tell the goaltender anything.

“Shea, you can’t just leave me hanging like that,” Carey snapped.

“BecauseIhaveacrushonyou,” he rushed.

“What?”

“Because I have a crush on you,” he repeated.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“I’m sorry, I’ll leave if that upsets you that much,” he said and quickly stood up to leave.

Fuck, Carey didn’t mean it like that. He grabbed Shea’s wrist to pull him back to the couch.

“I didn’t mean it like that. I mean it like I have a crush on you as well and I never believe that you would like me back,” Carey explained quickly.

“Really?”

“Of course.”

Shea moved to sit down beside the goaltender before cupping his head with his large hands and kissing him. This kiss was so much better than the one the previous month and Carey slowly moved closer to Shea before moving up into his lap.

“We should probably stop and talk about this,” Shea said after a few minutes.

Carey kissed him once more before leaning back so that they were a little further from each other.

“I want to date you,” Carey started.

“And so do I but I haven’t dated in quite a while,” Shea admitted.

“Neither have I, so we can figure it out together. What do you think about telling our teammates?”

“Probably not quite yet but I don’t think that it is something that we can keep secret for long.”

“No, the whole lack of boundaries isn’t helping that I do agree with keeping it to ourselves for a bit.”

Shea snorted at that and that ended the more serious conversations as Carey offered to make lunch.

It was really nice to have the other man in the kitchen and just like previous times it was extremely domestic but this time Carey could brush against him and wrap an arm around him without worrying about him.

Carey couldn’t believe that this is real and he couldn’t believe anything better.

 

*******

 

As predicted they didn’t manage to keep their new relationship quiet for long. In fact it was a couple of days until they were on their next road trip and in Detroit.

Shea had come into Carey’s hotel room and they were stretched out together on his bed, watching some crime show. Carey had his head resting in the other man’s lap and Shea was running his fingers through his hair when Gally burst into the room.

“Oh, there you are, wait, fuck, are you two dating? I knew it,” he cried.

Carey just rolled his eyes but was amused when Gally ran out of the room.

“Carey and Shea are dating and you all owe me money,” he yelled.

“They were betting on us?” Shea asked Carey.

“Are you surprised though?”  

“Honestly, not really.”

It only took another minute for most of the team to congregate in Carey’s room where the painr in question hadn’t moved from the bed.

“So, you two are really dating each other?’ Jordie asked.

“Yeah, is that going to be a problem?” Shea asked icily.

“Of course not. None of us want to pay Gally, though?” Leks explained.

That made everyone in the room laugh.

“You guys are good together,” Gally added.

“That’s great. Can you leave us alone then?” Carey asked.

“Nah, we are really enjoying this,” Max laughed.

That made everyone laugh again but most of them filter back out of the room. Gally was the last one to leave and it looked like he was going to say one last thing, instead offer a smile before heading out and shutting the door behind him.

“That was eventful,” Carey laughed.

“And very loud,” Shea added.

“In some ways I’m glad that they know.”

Shea agreed and they settled back into a comfortable silence. That was until ten minutes later when Carey phone rang. He almost wasn’t going to answer it until he noticed that the call was soming from PK and he knew that if he didn’t answer now until Carey picked up.

“Why did I have to find out you are dating Shea from Gally?” he asked.

“Hello, it’s nice to hear from you. How is the team going? Sounds great,” Carey asked.

“Hahaha, why hadn’t you told me first?” PK asked.

“Because Shea and I were keeping it to himself until Gally decided that he couldn’t knock on a door.”

“Who is it?” Shea whispered.

“PK”

“Are you with him now?” PK asked.

“Yeah, it was nice until you interrupted us,” Carey teased.

“Pass the phone to him,” PK demanded.

Carey groaned but did hand the phone over. The conversation wasn’t long and Shea had a smile on his face most of the time but Carey was still glad when it was over.

“What did he want?” Carey asked.

“Just to tell me that he would hurt me if I hurt you,” he laughed.

Carey laughed because that was so PK.

“I’m sorry about that,” Carey said.

“It’s alright. I’d listen to hundreds of those for you.”

Carey looked up at him and smiled brightly.

“And I’d do anything for you.”

Because in that moment Carey couldn’t imagine being anywhere else, with anyone else, noisy teammates and all.  


End file.
